Letter of the Day: The Church has not failed, Mr Hall

It would seem that Mr Hall has contradicted himself by saying that the Church has failed and at the same time reflecting on what was the norm when he was a boy living with Adventist and Anglican influences.

It is my observation that the Church today has more youth-related activities/ministries than when Mr Hall was a boy in short pants and long before when I was a child having to attend Church and Sunday school regardless. Bearing in mind this fact we must find out why we do not have a larger percentage of our children attending Church.

In my mind and from my own experiences working with young people the answer is obvious. The primary and first stage of socialisation, the home, has fallen very short. Parents and children are now sleeping late on Sunday and Saturday mornings, because of the parties they both attended until day break. As a society our norms have changed at all social and economic levels. Is it that we have become more independent in our thinking, because of our apparent abundant resources and less on God the source of our abundance?

As a school administrator Mr Hall should be more than aware of the challenges that schools face as a result of absentee parents and/or parents with parenting skills and values that fall woefully short for effective parenting.

If we should take Mr Hall's discussion further we could say that our schools have failed our children in spite of the increased and upgraded offerings at the basic, primary and high school levels. This I am sure he would argue to be not so and I would be in agreement, as there are so many parents who do not seem to have placed a high value on acquiring a good education and their children, therefore, waste the offering.

The first five years of a child's development is critical and requires parenting that is wise and visionary.

Going to Church may not Christianise you, but it imparts important values that serve us well in our daily lives. The Church has not failed since it is more active than before in all aspects of ministry reaching out through all types of media and evangelical activities. Parents need to examine themselves more critically and make decisions that will benefit their children in the short and long term. Persons who are seen as influential must be critical in their analysis as they verbalise.